S. Korea moviemakers furious over film withdrawal

South Korea's firebrand director Chung Ji-Young speaks during a press conference against the decision to stop screening the documentary film "Project Cheonan Ship" produced by Chung in Seoul.

Sep 09, 2013

SEOUL - South Korea's film community reacted angrily on Monday to a major cinema chain's decision to stop screening a documentary that questions whether North Korea was really behind the 2010 sinking of the warship Cheonan.

The Megabox move "does serious violence to our cultural vitality which prospers on the basis of diversity and the freedom of expression," the representatives of 11 film industry groups, including directors, producers, critics and others said in a joint statement.

At a news conference in Seoul, they called on the cinema chain to rescind its decision, apologise and identify the conservative groups behind the protest threats.

The naval corvette Cheonan sank with the loss of 46 lives on the night of March 26, 2010 near the South's disputed Yellow Sea border with the North.

An investigation by a South Korean-led international commission concluded it had been sunk by a torpedo from a North Korean submarine - a charge Pyongyang has always angrily denied.